In the Other World
by elevatormoshpit
Summary: Three hundred years ago, the Earl and the Noah went into hiding. Peace was abundant and Exorcists became obsolete. Until a boy from another world screwed everything up. Vampire AU, Kanda/Allen later.
1. Right Here We'll Stay

**Disclaimer of doom that ruins my nice formatting:** I disclaim. As in, I do not own, therefore I do not claim. Not mine.

**Chapter One: Right Here We'll Stay **

**xXxxxxxXx**

It is cold in the tower. Kanda can see his breath, and the little yellow _thing_ he was put in charge of looking after is shivering. He vaguely wonders if the _thing_ can actually feel cold, but discards the thought immediately. He doesn't care one way or the other. The only reason he is even keeping it is because his master had given it to him before he disappeared. Not that he cares about his master, either. Or, at least that's what he would like people to believe.

Kanda tells himself that he's keeping it so he can throw it at his master's head when he returns, and looks out the window, like he does every night. He likes the view from here, high above the hustle and bustle of the town, even at this hour. It's peaceful there, seeing tiny shapes but not hearing them. But even he can't suppress the slight shudder of... something -fear or disgust or sadness- when he thinks about the past, how there once was no life in that town.

**xXxxxxxXx**

Lenalee is busy at all hours of the day, and much of the night. Not the kind of busy that would make a person pass out from exhaustion a couple feet away from bed at night, like she has noticed some of the scientists do on their breaks. It's more of a fulfilling busy that makes her feel good at the end of the day. She helps those around her. When someone needs something -not too dangerous, mind you- from storage, she runs and gets it. If her brother decides he would rather sleep on his desk than do his work, she is one of the few people who knows how to wake him. She prefers it this way, anyway, because otherwise he could be clinging to her and crying for hours.

And then there is the most important task of all.

"Coffee!"

She does this every two hours, and every time there is practically a stampede that makes it's way toward her. She feels bad for the scientists. Sure, she is busy, but it is nothing compared to the work load they have to endure. And besides, her "busy" was self-induced. No one told her to help out, she just does it because she wants to. So she smiles and she holds out the tray of rapidly disappearing mugs, thanks each and every person as they leave to go back to their work, and then wishes them all good luck before she leaves.

Then she returns to the kitchen to refill the tray, because despite the mass of people slaving away in the science department, there are still more throughout the tower.

Her next stop is her brother Komui's office, and on the way she offers a mug to anyone passing by. When she gets to her brother's office, he is asleep. She sighs. Sometimes he makes her mad, lazing around like he is. Granted, there hasn't been much for him to do lately. Not much for anyone other than the scientists to do, which is why she keeps herself busy helping them. She figures she won't wake him this time, and puts the mug down next to him, hoping he will wake before the coffee goes cold.

She takes her leave, visits a few rooms where she knows people are staying. Notices how few people there are in the tower these days. Remembers the days when she was a little girl, when the halls were flourishing with people. Well, not really flourishing, but over the years that small number has dwindled to a maddeningly small number.

She sniffs back the tear that wants to fall, wipes at her eye when the tear falls anyway, and runs face first into someone.

There is an annoyed, or perhaps angry, grunt. The tray falls to the ground and mugs break. She feels herself falling, but is kept upright by a hand on her shoulder.

"Lenalee?"

She smiles up at him, even though her eyes are still wet. The only Exorcist other than herself who has stayed. This long, anyway. She wonders what keeps him here, and how long before that something isn't enough to keep him from leaving.

"Kanda! Do you-- Oh." She frowns down at the remainders of the coffee, and the small amount of green tea hidden among the brown liquid and porcelain. "I made you some tea. Since you don't like coffee. But it..." She looks mournfully at the mess on the floor.

Kanda wants to ask her if something is wrong, because obviously something is. But he's bad at those things. So he pats her on the shoulder and gives her a look. He hopes it's a look that tells her he's _here_, and he's not leaving. She smiles, and he's pretty sure the message got through, even if he is bad with those things and has no idea how she got it.

She starts picking the mug shards up and putting them back on the tray. Kanda helps her. She smiles at him again, but the smile falters. She pauses and looks down at the mess, then back at Kanda with fresh tears trying to seep out.

"Kanda... do you think this place will ever be... alive again?"

He shrugs, tries not to scoff because it's _Lenalee_, and she's a girl. He was always taught to be nice to girls. And. And in all honesty, he doesn't know how to deal with tears.

The fact is, though, that he doesn't know if the tower will ever come back to life. It's not technically dead, anyway, considering it's an inanimate object. But mostly everyone is gone now, no need to stay in a place that doesn't need you. There are still a few hopefuls who believe they will be needed again. And there are the people like Kanda, who simply have nowhere else to go.

In the end, the tower's life is completely dependent on outside factors.

He opens his mouth, tries to say something, what he doesn't know yet. Hopefully something helpful. Or cheerful. Or whatever it is she needs, because he really has no clue what that is and he's really just winging it. But he doesn't get the chance to.

They both turn abruptly when they hear something crashing around the corner, followed shortly by the sound of breaking glass. Kanda leaps into action, running for his room, where he's sure the sound is coming from. When he opens his door, Lenalee is close behind him. Kanda stops and stares in horror at the scene while Lenalee looks rather confused.

There isn't really much to gape at. A bed, a desk with a book on top and a chair pushed underneath. And a bird's cage hanging from the ceiling. And empty bird's cage. With nothing in it. No little yellow _thing_ flapping it's wings. There is nothing left of the _thing_ but a hole in the cage and another hole in his window.

Lenalee gives Kanda a questioning look. "Kanda, when did you get a bird? I wasn't aware that you even liked animals."

**xXxxxxxXx**

01- Confused yet? You should be. I like confusing people before I start explaining.

02- So, here's the thing. I have a horrible track record keeping up with things, and I lose interest in things fairly quickly. But I've had this idea in my head for a while, and I have most of it planned out already. In my head at least. And I have a co-writer with me, so HA! I will vanquish you, attention span of shortness! And if not, Emi will.

03- Just for kicks, the title for this chapter is a line from a song I've been obsessing over recently. Figure it out and you get twenty win points!

--Mosh.


	2. Welcome to Paradise

**Disclaimer:** I own a lot of things, but D. Gray-man isn't among them.

**Chapter Two: Welcome to Paradise**

**xXxxxxxXx**

It took a while to convince Cross to let him go to Mana's grave, as it did ever year before that. But it is tradition. Every year he visits the grave on the anniversary of the day he died. Cross said something about mopy brats, which didn't help much, but he was at least his spirits were lifted a little, knowing that he would get to continue his tradition. Or, at least as lifted as one's spirits can be when visiting the grave of one's father.

He had been saving a bit of the money he made from Cross and bought a rose for this day. Mana wasn't technically his father, but he was the most important person in his life since he could remember.

He stops dead a few feet away from the grave. Right in front of it is some kind of heart shaped door that he knows for a fact was never there before. He looks at it, takes a cautious step toward it, reaches his hand toward it. He's not sure what he is expecting, maybe for the door to open and some horrible monster to jump out and eat him alive, but nothing happens.

When he touch the door, though, it opens. He's pretty sure his heart stops, and he's never going to be able to look at a door again without being a little spooked.

He takes another cautious step toward it. Nothing happens. No monsters, no evil shadows trying to suck him in. Just a black void that could go on for eternity or end just a few inches in. He stands and stares at it, not sure what to do. It's blocking Mana's grave and he's not sure he wants to put his back to this thing.

He doesn't have to worry about it, though. A hand reaches out of the black void, and he's so shocked that he falls on the ground. The hand is followed by an arm and a shoulder, then a head with dark spikes sticking everywhere and very mischievous looking golden eyes.

Golden eyes. That can't be good.

The hand reaches down as the rest of the body steps out of the door. He looks up at wonder at the girl. Wonders if aliens have come to abduct him or if he's just having a really, really realistic dream.

He lets the girl grab his hand and help him to his feet, and he smiles, a little shakily.

"Um. Hi. I'm A--"

"Allen Walker."

"How did you know that?"

"Because, this is your dream."

Her once mischievous smile turns into something evil, and Allen has decided that he'll take her word for it and go with the dream theory.

**xXxxxxxXx**

"Kanda, when did you get a bird? I wasn't aware that you even liked animals."

Lenalee doesn't get an answer. Kanda is turning and running down the hall in the direction Lenalee had just come from. It takes her a second or two to realize he's even gone, he leaves so fast. But after it sinks in, she is after him. She catches up in record speed because Lenalee has always been a fast girl.

Kanda looks distraught, she thinks. To someone who doesn't know him well, he would look angry. Actually, to someone who doesn't know him well he would look perpetually angry. But Lenalee has lived in this tower with him since they were little. She can tell that this particular face is distraught, and she wonders why. It was just a bird, after all. He can always get another one.

She can understand from her perspective, of course. She remembers having a puppy when she was little. She came home one day and he was gone. It had torn her heart apart at the time, after becoming attached to it. It is understandable for her to become attached to her pets. But Kanda is Kanda. She can't imagine him ever becoming attached to anything, much less a bird. But she is being too hard on Kanda, she realizes. He may be a war hardened soldier, but he is still human. Surely he has feelings just like everyone else. Of course he gets attached. Her heart aches at the thought, that she could be so thoughtless.

She is pulled out of her revery when Kanda suddenly stops at her brother's office and throws the doors open.

Komui, who had been napping pleasantly on his desk, jerks into an upright position immediately. He looks around frantically, then eyes Kanda and Lenalee. Lenalee has to admire Kanda for being able to wake her brother without embarrassing her. Kanda looks like he is seething now.

"Komui, I need to leave the tower."

Before Komui can reply that he is free to do as he pleases, Kanda turns on his heel and is striding back down the hall. Komui supposes Kanda still isn't used to not being a soldier, and doesn't quite realize he doesn't have orders and curfews now.

**xXxxxxxXx**

He doesn't really know how he got here. He doesn't know why his vision is clouded, or why he can barely move without hurting. He can't tell much about his surroundings, either, which only adds to the frustration he's feeling. The frustration is slowly ebbing into fear.

He tries to remember how he got here. Remembers a graveyard. Tries to remember why he was there. It is important, he knows. And then it hits him. _Mana. _He wants to hit himself for not remembering. Except that he can't seem to move, and hitting himself won't help him figure out where he is, anyway.

Door...

He remembers the door. Or not. Was it a door? He can't remember. Maybe not.

Yes, he's positive it was a door.

It intrigued him at the time. He's sure it wasn't there before. Or was it? It didn't look like it belonged, either way. And it opened quite willingly for him. His instincts told him to turn around, run like he's never run before. But he didn't. And then there were yellow eyes, and evil, and then...

… nothing.

He's here now, wherever 'here' is. He blinks, sees white, blinks again.

His heart stutters when he opens his eyes again to see a blurry shape, dark and relatively human-shaped. Relatively, because there seems to be too many points, and an off color. It looks vaguely familiar.

"He's awake!"

It is unmistakeably a girl's voice, cheerful and sweet, also familiar, and then the shape disappears. There is the sound of feet softly padding away from him on what must be plush carpet. He is once again left to stare at the whiteness.

A few seconds later the padding returns, along with a louder pair of feet that make more of a thud.

"See? Didn't I tell you?"

"He i_s_ awake, but..." Another shape shape pops into his line of vision, this one smoother. Something prods at his forehead, and if he had any control over anything but his eyes, he would have snapped at the thing for being rude. "What's wrong with him?"

"How should I know? They don't usually wake up unresponsive."

"Hmm. And what's with this mark?" Another poke, and the pointy shape hovers again.

"Beats me. Maybe we should tell the Earl." The girl makes a thoughtful humming sound. "But we have to wait until he gets back. He left town a couple days ago."

"What is the Earl doing out of town so close to the Ceremony?"

"Tyki," the girl has a chiding tone to her voice, "don't question the Earl's actions."

"Right, right. So what do we do in the meantime?"

Another thoughtful hum from the girl. "We should keep an eye on him. Just in case." Then in a more cheerful tone, "You get first watch!" The girl runs out of the room, and the smooth shape, Tyki, sighs.

"Looks like it's just you and me now, shounen."

**xXxxxxxXx**

Kanda returns to the tower a few hours, sans the yellow _thing_ and dripping wet. He curses the deceivingly sunny sky and almost wishes the vampires would come back so the dark and the clouds would return.

He's grumbling to himself as he passes Komui's office on his way to his room. It's one of those rare occasions where the office door is open and Komui is working. Of course that doesn't last long because now that there is someone outside his door, no matter how wet and murderous, he has a distraction from his work.

"Kanda! Did you have fun outside?" He is running up to the door and Kanda gives him his usual _che_ and a glare. Komui is impervious. "So what did you do?"

He grunts, but decides to answer.

"I lost something important earlier. I went to look for it."

"A golem perhaps?"

He's all serious now, and Kanda looks at him like he's got _crazy_ pasted on his forehead. Which isn't much different from his angry face.

"What's a golem?"

Now it's Komui's turn to look stunned, but soon recovers. Very few exorcists know about the golems. The generals each have one so they can report to Komui without having to travel all the way back to the Order and lose valuable time. And there are several golems floating around in the science department in case an emergency would come up. But Kanda doesn't spend time in the science department, and the golems are a relatively new invention, never used by the exorcists.

So he clarifies. "A yellow ball with wings and a tail."

Kanda's eyes widen a fraction, then turn to slits. "Where the hell is it?"

"I don't know!" He's panicking a bit, backing up and holding his hands up in defense. Kanda is not appeased. "Teidoll brought it to me and asked if it was safe to give to you, and then I set it up on the system with the rest of the golems. And just a while ago it left Order grounds."

"You can see where it is?" His eyebrow is twitching and the vein in his forehead is throbbing. Anyone can tell he's about to burst.

"Well, I have it's coordinates." He looks a bit sheepish.

"WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT SOONER?!"

**xXxxxxxXx**

There are legends about the place. Silly stories meant to scare young children and tantalize older children who think themselves brave. They all make it out alive, of course. The Earl and his clan had left hundreds of years ago. The Exorcists of that time had checked every last nook of the grounds to assure they were gone. But no one with half a brain dares go there unnecessarily. No matter how long gone the Noah may be, the place still holds that eerie feeling of something evil watching you. It surrounds the area and only gets worse the further in you go.

Kanda doesn't care. He knows why no one understands his desire to go into the Earl's territory. They aren't Exorcists. And Lenalee had never had to fight. She has no idea what it is to be a warrior, to _need_ to finish the job because it's just what you _do_. She doesn't understand what failure means to people like him.

Losing that _thing_, the golem, was a failure. Teidoll had entrusted it to him, to watch it, and he left it get out practically under his nose. It wasn't an order, per se, but in these days one has to take what they can get.

He has to get the golem back.

He is only a few steps into the forest surrounding the grounds when he feels something he knows he shouldn't feel. A tiny thrill of something familiar goes down his spine and he stiffens. It's not unlike the evil feeling left behind by the Noah, but it feels more solid, somehow. He knows this feeling, felt it three hundred years ago before the Noah disappeared.

**xXxxxxxXx**

04- There's chapter two! Sorry for the wait, if anyone has been waiting. I've been working on an uber long one shot lately, and it's kind of sucking up my inspiration.

05- Also, I forgot to mention last chapter, this is actually based off of the plot for a web comic we were planning. Then we realized how well it would fit into the -Man world and couldn't resist.


End file.
